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33. Troubled Waters
After the party left the Fifth Hell, Nix and Clwyd went to the Telphousila estate's palace and waited to be called by Lady Telphousila herself. ** The inside of the palace wasn't nearly so macabre in its decor as the rest of the estate. ** The pair sat in a waiting room for over 30 hours total. Nix was pretty serious the whole time so they didn't talk much. He didn't let Clwyd fall asleep either. ** When eventually they are summoned, they enter the lady's throne room. ** The 7-foot-tall erinys is sat in her throne, bids they come forward, and then stands to speak to Clwyd - such that, with the raised steps that the throne is on, she's well over twice the height of Clwyd as she speaks to her. ** She says to the goblin that the recent progress her child has made - three promising wards and the beginnings of a cult in the works - are in no small part because of her, the first of those wards, who, in taking a contract, kept Nix and the household a part of the party and Driscoll's business for far longer than he would have been otherwise. ** Further, she remarks that she's pleased with the study Clwyd has been undergoing during her time in the Hells, both in learning fiend lore and mastering her hellfire. ** She rewards Clwyd with a Blasting Rod, a dark wooden rod as long as a forearm and thick as thumb and forefinger looped, carved all over with sharp infernal runes. The thing appears to thrum with an inner power as Clwyd takes it. Telphousila says it should augment Clwyd's Pact Magic considerably. ** Clwyd is polite and deferential the whole time, the model of a prim and proper vassal. ** Telphousila also gives Clwyd a promise, 'made in good faith': in addition to any tasks and rewards that Nix offers her, should Clwyd aid the household in dismantling their rivals in House Alekto, Telphousila pledges Nix's aid, in person, in Clwyd's battle against Madog when the time for that comes. Additionally, the pair, mentor and ward, would be able to call upon Telphousila herself in that fight. Though her manifestation beyond the Gate of Fire is a difficult thing, she can promise an appearance lasting 1 full minute. *** All of this, predicated on Clwyd moving efforts along enough to satisfy all parties in the agreement; that's what the 'made in good faith' part refers to. ** At the end of the discussion, Telphousila, who hasn't spoken to Nix the entire time, sits back down and gives a slight smile and nod towards the cambion as she dismisses them; he's pleased her. ** Nix bids that the pair rest before they return to Tortuga, but he thanks Clwyd for her part in winning him his mother's praise. * In Tortuga, the party, minus Clwyd still, wake up on the Drunken Dragon. ** Aerendyl excuses himself early to go find some cats for their voyage. ** Wilfred departs alone to go get his clothes from Glittergold. While there, he also picks up some charcoal and incense so he can summon a familiar. ** Cormorant spends his morning getting the ship ready to push off. ** Having found a note that read, 'Shall we have a talk? -CW,' ''Pyt finds an urchin so that he might meet with the Crooked Warden. ** Once again speaking through a teenager, the Warden tells Pyt that he remembers the group and asks what its worth to them for the Warden to not tell those who are hunting them where they are. ** Pyts asks how much money has been put on the task of locating them, finds out it's a total of 0 gold, and so decides to offer 1 gold to the Warden. ** The Warden says he doesn't like the triteness, and asks if Pyt really thinks a single gold will keep them safe when he offers to sell them out to Shandy. When Pyt suggests they could just run, the Warden threatens that his eyes see far. ** Pyt leaves having not paid any money, returns to Cormorant and lies, saying he offered as much as he could to the Warden and it wasn't enough. * The party reunites just before midday. ** Clwyd and Nix arrive at the docks following his plane shift. They spot Cormorant and Pyt on ''the Drunken Dragon. ** Wilfred returns from his trip. ** The four of them discuss the problem with the Warden within earshot of Nix. The cambion is visibly annoyed that such a problem has come up immediately after returning from a year spent sequestered just to get away from such problems. It takes all his restraint to maintain his polite persona. ** Wilfred, Clwyd, and Pyt return to the Warden in the building where Pyt had spoken to him before. They put 1000 gold down - not thinking it'll be enough should Shandy want to actually outbid it, but that it might be enough to push the delivery of such information down the Warden's priority list, thus buying them time. *** Wilfred had detect magic up during this meeting and didn't sense anything arcane about the teenager they spoke with. ** While the others were gone, Nix took the opportunity to have a little chat with Cormorant before Nix leaves the group to their own devices again. *** He said that twice Cormorant had stood in his home, as a guest, and spouted something sanctimonious to him. *** Also remarked that Cormorant refused the offer to join the household despite Nix's offers of wealth, power, and the promise of Nix uncovering information about Cormorant's quarry. *** But he wanted to make sure Cormorant understood that his motivations are still selfish, and that he himself is not a man with clean hands. There will come many times in the future, as Cormorant pursues his goal, during which he will rely on the strength and power of Nix's two wards. During those times, Nix hopes Cormorant will realise it's House Telphousila that is propping him up, and perhaps in doing so he'll finally come to realise he should just make a deal with Nix already. *** Nix also alludes to Wilfred slowly falling within his grasp during this conversation. *** Cormorant, sensing hostility, mostly listens with stoicism, but brings an end to the discussion by asking Nix if he's threatening him. 'What would I gain by doing that?' comes the response. ** Aerendyl eventually returns, and he has five cats in tow: one each coloured: black, white, grey, ginger, and tortoiseshell. They're all walking of their own volition, but eagerly following behind the elf. ** Wilfred tells Nix about Greenbeard, saying he thinks the genasi might be of interest to the cambion. Nix agrees to look into it, as something of a trial of Wilfred's ability to discern a potentially useful ward from the chaff. * They push off from Tortuga, heading for Agnor. ** With the potential threat of the Crooked Warden, they opt to not go and speak to Clay. ** With three days of sailing, they make it out the Chelonii Atoll. *** During this time, Cormorant briefly speaks to Wilfred about the creeping influence of House Telphousila in the group. He also mentions how Nix talked about the gnome 'falling into his grasp' in their one-on-one convo. ** They stop off in Barge End just long enough for Clwyd to buy two hooded lanterns and five throw rugs for the Drunken Dragon. They also buy another week's worth of rations. ** They leave Barge End before nightfall, sailing towards Bisquay and anchoring for the night in the waters between the two settlements. ** The next day, they give Bisquay a wide berth and push into what was once Driscoll's territory. ** From there, it's five days of sailing to get to Agnor. ** The first day is easy sailing. Before they hit the dangerous waters the following day, they opt for a small party on the boat that evening. Clwyd shows off that she can fly now - having spent her time in the Hells practicing. Pyt uses his viol to summon unseen servants enough to give everyone massages at the same time. But then he ruins things by getting them all to pick Wilfred up at once, prompting the gnome to start dispelling them one-by-one, calling Pyt a ruiner. * The day after they passed Bisquay, the group spot a goblin junker on the horizon in the afternoon. ** Clwyd asks the group if they can go to it. It's been a long time since she's spoken to any other goblins and she wants to check in. They all agree. ** She uses thaumaturgy to make her voice louder, hailing the ship once it's seen them approaching. The goblins on deck visibly relax once they hear a goblin speaking their language to them. They wave the Drunken Dragon in close. ** A chain-link ladder is thrown over the side of the junker and it's got hooks to lash the Drunken Dragon in place. The party go aboard. ** They're welcomed onto the ship as goblins and goblin-friends by the matron of the ship, the oldest woman aboard, named Caerwyn. *** Goblin society being matrilineal, this itself is a position with significant prestige, even though the junker still has a captain and other such standard roles expected on a ship. ** With the arrival of their guests, the junker, named the Sparker, calls for lunch. A bell is rung and over 200 goblins spring forth from the bowels and heights of the vessel, all sitting and huddling wherever they can on the deck. Sacks of food are passed around, and it's all fairly gross stuff - lots of barnicles, seaweed, some day old fish, cured meats; literally anything they could get their hands on. It goes a long way towards explaining why Clwyd has never seemed to care about what she's eating. ** The party sit with Caerwyn, the matron, as well as Alun, the ship captain, and Folant, the chef. *** Clwyd notes that this is the formal arrangement for having guests aboard during a meal. It's a bit of a stuffy tradition though, and these guys are probably only doing it because there are foreigners aboard the junker. ** Wilfred casts tongues on himself and Cormorant, since almost nobody on this ship can speak Common at all. Pyt bumbles through with his bad Goblin. ** The party and Caerwyn do the talking. Clwyd tells her roughly what she's up to, skipping over any of the Hells stuff. She speaks of the destruction of her ship, the Maelstrom, joining the party and fighting alongside them, and how they're now heading to Agnor. Clwyd then asks what Caerwyn knows of Madog. ** Caerwyn says she's never met the man, but there's much talk of him among their people now. She will pass on what she knows of him, but to do so she also tells the party the story of why her people roam the seas in metal ships looking for storms, so they might better understand his aims. ** Madog the Inferno, she says, isn't just killing goblins. He's looking to fundamentally change their ways as a people. When his vessel encounters other goblins, he gives them a simple choice: 'leave or life?' They are either to leave behind the roaming and the storm-chasing to join him, or give up their lives. He's been poaching the strongest fighters, the best engineers, the smartest wind readers, and all the most capable goblins from each junker he's encountered. Then he shreds their home and vessel, just as he had done to Clwyd's home, the Maelstrom. ''From the cannibalisation of the junkers, his ship, ''the Manta, grows. They say it's more island than ship now, and that is indeed his final aim: an island of metal, a place that he insists all goblins take as their new homeland. ** After lunch, the Sparker has a mild celebration for the presence of their guests. Some few return to their work, just to keep the junker moving towards the storm path and the revel they're all hoping to find. But it's still nearly 200 goblins who are around, playing music in large groups - which Pyt joins in with - and dancing - which Cormorant joins in with. ** Wilfred spends his time talking with the 'windworker' of the ship, the goblin equivalent of a navigator. Through a huge array of storm charts and erratic needles that apparently bob and move in accordance with sea currents, air pressure, wind direction, and far off storms, the man, Dyfed, can plot a course that leads up through Driscoll's territory and will hopefully bisect one of the spring migratory storms. Wilfred spends his day geeking out with the windworker, learning what little he can pick up of a generations-old craft (and embarrassing Clwyd by suggesting he might unravel the secrets of it overnight!). He makes a copy of the largest of Dyfed's storm charts, thus giving him a clear indication of the places where the migratory storms are most frequent in these waters. ** As the festivities die down, Cormorant inquires about black powder and learns that none of the goblins have even heard of the stuff. Speaking with Clwyd, he concludes that, firstly, he might have been accidentally racist even though he was trying really hard not to, and secondly, that maybe the connection to the black powder is less 'goblins' and more 'Madog and the Manta.' ** Clwyd asks to speak to the 'fireworkers' of the ship. Caerwyn takes her down to the engine room and introduces her to the two men who oversee it, Arwel and Wren. Clwyd has fun being in a junker engine room again - it was her old job on her ship; she spent most of her youth in an engine room. Having recently acquired a number of other magic items that she'd rather prioritise, and with none of the party interested in it, she looks to give the ring of the ram away to these goblins so they have a little bit more punching power if it comes to a fight. They scrounge up two black pearls and three pieces of jade (that look like they've been popped out of jewellery, probably found in a scavenge) to give her for it. ** Eventually, evening falls and the party has to take their leave, lest they head in the complete wrong direction for the night as well as the afternoon. ** As Clwyd's departing, Caerwyn says to her, 'remember that Branwen ran when he had to.' They're both tearing up a bit. Clwyd promises that she'll solve the Madog problem. Then the Sparker chugs away while the Drunken Dragon drifts along on the nighttime tide. * That same night, while the others are asleep, Pyt encounters the flameskull Graham again. ** He doesn't wake the others, but the two of them have a pleasant conversation. ** The skull is really out of sorts and is still looking for its body. It doesn't seem to remember Pyt either. ** Pyt suggests it ask people where they've been after they tell it they haven't seen the headless horseman. That should help him cover more ground. Graham is very grateful for the good idea. Then he flies off to keep searching. * The following night, while Cormorant is on watch, he's pulled overboard by the writhing hair of a drowned maiden. ** He's able to shout out and alert some of the others before he is submerged. ** A fight breaks out! ** The maiden is incredibly difficult to hit with her masses of tentacle-like hair swirling around her. They also lash out and wrap up the party from huge distances, the hair itself having strength like an iron chord. ** Pyt becomes a giant shark. Wilfred also turns Cormorant into a giant shark during the course of the fight. ** Clwyd showcases a number of her newly mastered abilities: she makes herself and Cormorant fly, and at one point she detonates a fiery explosion from the contact point of her eldritch blast. ** Cormorant reveals that the command word to ignite his burning sword is 'Deena.' ** It's a hard-fought battle, with the hair tangling up most of the party most of the time. Eventually they manage to wear the drowned maiden down, with giant shark Pyt biting off an arm, and aerial superiority Clwyd eldritch blasting off a leg below the knee. Finally, Wilfred, who didn't leave the deck of the Drunken Dragon the whole time, killed the undead creature by igniting a fireball and blowing her up. * On the following two days, the group sights a roc hunting in the distance, and then a pod of orcas swimming in formation. * Finally, in the late afternoon of the ninth day since they left Tortuga, the island of Agnor appears on their horizon. Category:Part Four